Love Stories
by ScottishTimeLady
Summary: Ginny isn't feeling great about spending her summer cleaning a rather horrible old house. One morning, while she avoids her mother's militant cleaning regime, she runs down to the basement of 12 Grimmauld Place and ends up making a new friend. Set in summer of OoTP, with a bit of platonic fluff.


**Love Stories**

"Ginny!"

The red head cursed under her breath and moved towards the door. Running down the corridor as lightly as she could, she aimed for the stairs, and then quickly descended them. The last two weeks had been spent cleaning the rooms of 12 Grimmauld Place and Ginny desperately wanted a few minutes to herself. She'd been hiding in her room, pretending to get ready for the day and, successfully so far, had avoided the cleaning of a particularly messy room on the third floor. Ron, Hermione, Fred and George had already been caught and roped in, and Ginny could hear them coughing from a distance as she swung down the stairs. As she neared the ground floor, she looked up the stairs behind her, checking that the coast was clear. A loud creak indicated that the door of the room had been opened.

"Ginny! You've had enough time after a shower now, stop diddlydaddling and give me some help!"

She didn't move or make a sound as her mum waited for a reply.

"Ginny?" her mother edged towards her daughter's bedroom door.

As she wondered where a good place to hide would be when a large crash made her jump, which was quickly followed by shouts of laughter. Ginny giggled as well, as she heard her mum rush back into the room and begin another lecture. Once more, she felt relieved and grateful to have brothers like Fred and George. She skipped down the last few steps and headed for the small staircase which wound down to the kitchen-basement. After determining the room was empty, she entered, and prayed that her mother wouldn't check for her in there.

Soon enough, she made herself at home. Helping herself to some pumpkin juice, she settled near the fire and put her legs up on a chair as she hummed quietly to herself. Hermione's cat sidled into the room, its bushy tail and ginger hair hurtled itself towards Ginny as soon as he spotted her, purring deeply as she reached out automatically to stroke him. The satisfied expression on his ugly face made her giggle again, and she continued to fuss him, scratching behind the ears. As the purring grew louder, Ginny drifted into daydreaming. Thoughts and fantasies breezed into her head easily, and she tossed several aside, trying to focus on the practical things: school and how to avoid cleaning tomorrow as well.

Crookshanks peered up at Ginny and realised her eyes had glazed over. Feeling slightly irked, he slowly slid out of her grasp and ran off to locate a couple of lost dungbombs. He nudged them slowly across the room until they rolled over and hit Ginny. The ugly mutt glared up determinedly at Ginny, who had continued to daydream and hadn't noticed the small balls hitting the edge of her seat. Crookshanks meaowed before spectacularly managing to toss a dungbomb up onto Ginny's lap, and them jump after it.

Ginny jumped in surprise, a rude awakening from her thoughts, and then laughed as she saw Crookshanks trying to appear innocent.

"Awww… sorry I've not been giving you attention," Ginny cooed over the cat and slid off the chair onto the ground to start rolling the dungbombs around for him to chase.

Crookshanks was delighted to have something to do and immediately began darting around the room while Ginny watched him, smiling slightly and slowly allowing her thoughts to drift away. When Crookshanks rolled another dungbomb to whack against Ginny's hand, her thoughts immediately came crashing down. She quickly rolled it away, Crookshanks chasing it wildly. Ginny shook her head.

"Stop it!" she told herself off. "You need to get him _out_ of your head!"

Evidently, avoiding cleaning and hanging around all day had its downfalls. Ginny sighed, crawled across the floor and started fumbling under one of the cabinet's for a lost dungbomb.

"Ah-HA!" Ginny grinned as she caught it and pulled it out.

However, the girl froze as she heard footsteps coming down the stairs. She scrambled to try to hide behind the wooden cabinet, tucking her feet close to her. It was a pathetic hiding place, but the only thing she could do short notice so she waited, praying that her mum would simply glance around the room and then leave quickly to check elsewhere. As the footsteps entered the room, Ginny held her breath. They paused and their owner surveyed the room. A pair of eyes landed on the chairs pulled out from the table, the half-empty glass on the table and the dungbombs strewn across the floor. Ginny cringed as she realise she'd left the room in such a way that her mother would know she'd been there, and as the footsteps approached her hiding place she braced herself for the worst. They stopped right next to her and she waited for her mum to start an incredibly loud lecture, and tedious lecture.

"Hello?"

Ginny looked up to see Sirius watching her, his face obviously amused.

"I was just… er…" she looked and saw she was still clutching a dungbomb. "Er…"

"Avoiding cleaning?" he offered.

Ginny paused.

"Yeah…" she admitted.

"Best idea I've heard all day!" he smiled broadly at her. She stood up slowly, slightly confused: hadn't he been the one who set about cleaning in the first place? Didn't he have to live here all the time? Shouldn't he want the cleaning to be over and done with? She herself was just being lazy and plainly avoiding work.

Sirius moved across the kitchen and started raiding the cupboards, searching through various bottled and managing to locate another reasonably clean glass. Ginny shrugged and then sat back in the chair she'd pulled out, starting to sip her pumpkin juice. Sirius poured himself a glass and chatted away.

"Your mother is a brilliant woman, but she's bloody strict with all this cleaning! It's as though she's decided we're all on a mission to fight against the dust in this house, and I suppose we are, but she's a bit… militant about it all," Sirius shrugged and then settled himself down at the table. "How'd you get out of cleaning?"

"I just said I was getting ready and then slipped down here," she explained. "Fred and George are pretty good at keeping her distracted, even if it's not on purpose."

"So what have you been doing all day?" Sirius asked.

Ginny shrugged. "Just playing with Crookshanks a bit and thinking."

Ginny could have killed herself when she realised that she'd said the word "thinking" rather wistfully. As Sirius raised an eyebrow, Ginny turned slightly pink, but luckily he didn't say anything more. The two sat in a slightly awkward silence, the only sounds being the clink of the glass on the table, and Crookshanks purring loudly as she settled on Sirius's lap instead. Ginny started to feel a bit guilty that she didn't know what to say. After all, she'd been living in this house for three weeks, eaten all her meals in the same room, and spent most of the days cleaning with him – granted the rest of the family had too. Yet, she realised they had never had a proper conversation with the man. She assumed that Sirius had realised this too, and he spent a few minutes deliberately giving Crookshanks attention.

"Molly is hoping to convince Dumbledore to get Harry over soon," Sirius attempted at the conversation.

 _Wow, nice one,_ Ginny thought to herself. _The one thing I was trying to get out my head…_ Instead of saying this, she simply turned a little bit redder and nodded. "Yeah… should be nice," she muttered. He shrugged before getting up to find another bottle of butterbeer. He offered one to her before sitting down again. After one deep gulp he opened his mouth once again.

"So… got a bit of a thing for Harry then?"

Her cheeks grew hotter as she looked at him alarmed. A small part of her wondered if it had reached the same colour as her hair yet. Sirius, however, looked rather non-chalant, and simply smiled ockily at her, as though he was winding up his little sister.

"I take it…" Sirius continued without a reply from Ginny. "…that's what you were thinking about before I rudely interrupted you?"

"No," Ginny managed to shoot out. "I have a boyfriend, you see."

"Just because you have a boyfriend doesn't mean that you don't think about someone else."

Ginny didn't really know what to say to that. Evidently, it was true, she was an example of that, but this was unexpected. She never thought that this man here would be hear, speaking so nonchalantly, and teasing her, about her feelings towards his own godson. When she didn't reply, a smug look of superiority appeared on his face. Once she'd gotten over the initial shock of this direct windup, Ginny knew how to handle it. She did, after all, have six brothers. Reaching down to the floor, she picked up an abandoned dungbomb and started examining it.

"There's something I should probably warn you about…" he spoke, his tone edging towards a slightly mystical air. Ginny snorted.

"Ah-huh, really?" her voice dripping with sarcasm as she rolled her eyes.

Sirius grinned at her again and shrugged. "Well… if you _really_ don't want to know, I won't bother saying…"

His gaze drifted to the ceiling before peeking back at Ginny to see her reaction. She shrugged, used to this game.

"I'll live," she waited to see Sirius's reaction, whose grin just grew broader and she returned the smile.

"Smart, eh? Nice to see a smart young girl with a sense of humour, they were rare when I was at school!"

"Well, how would you know? The smart girls probably just avoided you."

He laughed at that again, taking her cheek pretty well for someone who didn't know her and had also spent twelve of the last fourteen years in Azkaban. They fell into slightly less awkward and more amicable silence. As the conversation lulled, Sirius starting tapping on the table somewhat nervously.

"If," he started slowly. "You need someone to talk to about whatever you're thinking about, feel free to talk to me… I'm not very good at these things but I'm willing to help someone out."

The offer was incredibly sweet, and Ginny was touched by it. It wasn't just anyone who would offer to hear the problems of some random teenage girls.

"It's all right… I've talked to Hermione about it a lot the past couple of years," Ginny explained while studying his face and noting he was being completely serious. "I asked her what I should do and she told me to… move on and try and be more normal around him… try going out with other guys and just relax around him so he can get to know _me_ … but, y'know, it's difficult."

Ginny bit her lip and played a little with her glass.

"I think Hermione's given you good advice," Sirius replied. "Such a bright young witch, that one. But, moving on, it does take time…" it was Ginny's turn to raise an eyebrow but she didn't say anything else.

"Being serious… I _should_ warn you…" Ginny looked up from her glass to see he had moved back to a joking mood once more. "Harry is going to be a _hopeless_ romantic!"

"What makes you say that?"

Sirius laughed. "His parents! God… the drama at school with them…" his light up eyes gave away that was ecstatic to have a chance to reminisce.

Ginny shifted her chair closer to the table as she grabbed an unopened bottle of butterbeer. "I thought they loved each other and were happily married and everything?"

"Well, they _were_ , but when they were at school it was very different," Sirius grinned. "Lily… utterly _hated_ James's guts. And when I say 'hated' I really mean _loathed_ , shouting, hexes, the whole shebang!"

"And James?"

"Well, in first and second year he just seemed to be a bit interested in her, liked to wind her up a bit, then it changed in third year and… well… he became obsessed with her. Asked her out every time she paused for breath and did stupid things to get her attention, which, of course, made her dislike him even more!"

Ginny laughed, she hadn't thought much about Harry's parents' relationship before. She could see Sirius's eyes twinkle as he remembered.

"Can you tell me about it?" Ginny asked him.

"Of course!" Sirius looked enthusiastic and took a gulp of his butterbeer before continuing.

"So, we all met on the Hogwart's Express, and right then Lily and James got off on the wrong foot."

"What happened?"

"Well, we were talking about what houses we wanted to be in, and James said that he thought he'd leave if he was in Slytherin."

"Who wouldn't?" Ginny snorted.

Sirius laughed. "Lily was a muggle born though… and she'd met someone before at home who she was very good friends with… and he was with us and also from a rather… Slytherin family…" Sirius sounded as though he was trying to place the words quite carefully.

Ginny felt her jaw drop. "Seriously?"

Sirius nodded his head. "So of course when James insulted him Lily got rather defensive and left the compartment."

"But Harry's mum wasn't in Slytherin, was she?" Ginny asked confused.

"No, she was in Gryffindor, but it was more about him insulting her friend rather than the whole Houses and Sorting."

"Was her friend in Gryffindor too?"

"No, he was sorted into Slytherin."

"Oh," Ginny wasn't sure what to think.

"So of course everyone told her, 'oh, friendships are rather rare across the houses and impossible if it's between a Gryffindor and a Slytherin'. But being Lily, she decided to defy this rule and carry on being good chums with her friend, no matter what anyone else thought. And they managed… for a while anyway. But the problem was of course, James thought this was a great topic for her to discuss and him to ask questions about. So he spent a lot of time once he'd settled in annoying her about it, managing to press all the right buttons to wind her up. And she had quite a temper on her… so you can fill in the blanks," Sirius laughed.

"The arguments got a lot more interesting as the year progressed; learning different spells and whatnot helped spice up the arguments."

Ginny grinned and took another drink of her butterbeer as she listened.

"Then of course, they got a bit older and, as you know, feelings between boys and girls start to change slightly. The whole boyfriend/girlfriend situation is known when you're younger but it becomes a lot more real after a while. For some people it comes quicker than others…"

"-but there's a lot of people who fall in love or have crushes in first and second year, most people I know did!" Ginny pointed out.

"Well, yes, but it's a lot more innocent then… and a bit more low key, the full blown hormones aren't quite raging around then," Sirius laughed again. "James was one of the ones who went through the transition rather fast. It was about the start of third year and I remember one day when we were walking to Herbology and James had been rather quiet, which was unusual for him. After a couple of minutes he just nudges me and whispers 'y'know Evans? She's a girl!' I remember thinking he was joking around for a moment but when I'd looked at his face it was so sincere. And after that she was his main focus!"

Ginny laughed. "Are you being serious? Things don't normally happen that quickly."

Sirius shrugged. "It varies for different people, for some they have to think for ages about it before they realise it, and for others it just hits them like a ton of bricks."

"So he just continued to obsess over her for five years with her being obviously not interested?" Ginny asked, still not entirely convinced.

"How long have you liked Harry for?" Sirius asked bluntly.

Ginny's cheeks grew hot again. "That's not the point; _I_ don't go around annoying him all the time!"

"Minor details!" Sirius waved his hand, swatting them away. "James didn't deliberately annoy her all the time though, often he was just pulling a few pranks with us to maybe get her attention and make her laugh, but she didn't find it very entertaining. So he kept on trying his very best, and was completely bewildered as to why she didn't like him. Of course, in the next couple of years he was getting a lot of attention from other girls from being a Quidditch hero and everything… and my wonderful good looks also helped boot up his reputation…"

Ginny raised an eyebrow as Sirius acted more and more childish, falling back into a state consisting of age-old pride and forgotten self-assurance. The more he talked, the more Ginny saw a new side of him. These past few weeks he had been quiet and somewhat brooding, but now, describing stories of his friends at Hogwarts, he was the most animated Ginny had seen him. He even looked younger! She guiltily realised that he wasn't very old at all, only in his mid-thirties, but his years in Azkaban had aged him terribly. Of course, the sunken gaunt face from the posters had disappeared since living in the comfort (if that was the right word) of Grimmauld Place, but there was still the haggard weary look to him, a little like Professor Lupin. It was sad that both of them who should still be at the peak of their health looked as though they'd been pushed over it long ago. An infectious smile spread right across his face as he described a prank that Harry's dad had done to impress his mother.

"So what did she do when she found out?"

"If I remember correctly…" Sirius scratched his head. "Sardine hex!"

Ginny cringed before starting to giggle at the thought of a Harry-look-alike sprouting sardines from their nose. Sirius joined in and they both roared with laughter.

"Well… isn't this… _cosy_."

Ginny stopped laughing at the sound of the cold voice. Her eyes snapped up to meet Snape's cold ones observing the two of them. Snape stood in the doorway unmoving and Ginny resisted the urge to shudder, she glanced at Sirius and wondered whether the two of them would get in some sort of fight; Sirius however, surprised her by grinning broadly at Snape.

"Ah, Severus!" Snape's eyes narrowed when Sirius used his first name. "I was just telling Ginny here about James and Lily, Harry's parents y'know, when they were at Hogwarts… don't you remember the fights they got into?"

Snape's eyes turned from a look of distaste to lethal. Ginny was used to seeing that Snape didn't like Sirius (much like he didn't Harry and the rest of them), but she'd never seen him look at Sirius with such as she saw him stare at him now. It was a little odd and the surprise caught her off-balance; she forgot to be quiet and instead piped up. "Oh were you at Hogwarts at the same time as them?"

Her potions professor immediately studied her face, sharply and analytically. What exactly he was searching for, Ginny wasn't sure, but all he found was her innocent gaze which then turned to slight embarrassment as she realised he had talked out of turn in the same room as him.

"Yeah, but we didn't really know each other very well," Sirius brushed it off casually. "Lily and James's fights were _famous_ in Hogwarts… it was pretty impossible to not have seen one before."

Ginny nodded, it was odd to think of these two as being schoolkids together. She was somewhat curious to what Snape would have been like as a student, and wondered if she could ask Sirius in a minute. Snape looked at Sirius with a strange look on his face. It was still angry, but there was something else there, a hint of… relief? There for only a moment, Snape's usual snarl broke through and it was as if the strange look had never occurred.

"I have several documents that Dumbledore wishes to see," Snape sneered before dropping them on the table in front of Sirius. " _Don't_ let any of the… children, see them."

He turned and then swept from the room leaving Ginny feel distinctly uncomfortable. There was a pause where Sirius chewed his lip and seemed to debate something in his mind. He quickly shrugged it off and then got up to tidy away the pile of scrolls in a cupboard ready for the next meeting.

"I guess I better do as he says," Sirius muttered as he put them away, before coughing and assuming his previous tone. "Lest your child-eyes spy these documents!"

Ginny laughed before trying to gather her thoughts again. "So…Lily didn't like James at all then?"

"Nope!" Sirius grinned as he plonked back down on the chair. "It was rather entertaining when Lily started getting hassle from people other than James…"

"What do you mean?" Ginny was lost for a second before thinking it over for a moment and then giggling. "From boys?"

Sirius nodded. "God… it was like a full blown war! I'm pretty sure there must have been moments where Lily didn't mind as much, because she didn't like the guy, but since they had arguments most of the time anyway from the teasing… but hell rained down if it turned out she'd like the boy! I remember when that Ravenclaw prefect asked her out in fourth year…"

His voice trailed off and Ginny was beginning to think he'd done it for dramatic effect, the show off.

"So what did James do to him?"

"Well, the Ravenclaw asked her if she wanted to go to Hogsmeade with him… and then James found out. He… er… slipped some potion in his food on the morning so he had to go to the hospital wing because he felt ill… then he pranked him a couple of times the following week, just minor things to try and embarrass him enough or make Lily think he was a bit odd and dump him. When it didn't work he locked him inside a broom cupboard for three days, one of which was when their rescheduled date was supposed to be."

Sirius noticed the shocked look on Ginny's face before quickly adding, "He did feed him though; he wasn't that heartless."

Ginny scoffed at that before commenting. "People always compare Harry to his dad, but I don't think Harry would lock someone in a broom cupboard for three days just because he wanted to date their girlfriend."

Sirius thought about this for a moment. "Harry has had to grow up a lot faster than James needed to, Harry now is more like what James was like when he was older, a bit more mature and, er, not locking people in broom cupboards, but he was still able to joke around and have a laugh."

"It's not really that bad though, what James did, was it?" Ginny changed the topic a bit. "I mean, compared to the other things he'd been doing, and from what I know of Fred and George…"

Sirius shook his head. "It was more what Lily did afterwards that made it memorable," he grinned. "She was utterly furious when she found out and ended up chasing James around the school trying to hex him into oblivion… it doesn't really sound much but after a while she really got cooking and started to transfigure objects around to throw him off… she ended up flooding the entire third floor, turning several things into little birds to follow him around as well… oh and she also managed to hex a lot of different black hair individuals," he roared with laughter. "It became a sort of cat and mouse game, not that James minded, he'd never had as much attention from her before! That was a brilliant afternoon, very entertaining to watch!"

"Isn't that a bit of an overreaction though?" Ginny crossed her legs in her chair.

"Red hair equals a fiery temper," Sirius answered simply.

"Hey!" Ginny reacted to defend her red locks before Sirius started laughing again at her.

"I remember Mary and Marlene telling me and Moony that James had gotten off lightly, Lily had apparently liked this guy for such a long time," Sirius paused looking a bit awkward for a second. He avoided Ginny's gaze and looked downward and Ginny had the distinct feeling he'd said too much. She wondered whether she should try to change the subject.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked hesitantly, not even really sure what "it" was (though she expected it was to do with one of the two names he'd mentioned).

"What? Oh, no, its fine, yeah… anyway, where was I?" Sirius barked with laughter again trying to ease the strain on his voice. "So anyway, Lily _really_ liked this prefect which is why she reacted so badly when she found out James was stopping them from going out. Normally she'd just throw a hex or two, but woah… you should have been there, just to see the looks on their faces!"

"What happened in the end to stop them?"

"Dumbledore came out of his office and asked what was going on, not nastily of course," Sirius said hastily. "I think he was quite curious to know what James had done this time, and Lily didn't exactly want to jinx him in front the Headmaster, so she just mumbled an apology and stalked off. Neither of them got detention or anything, it was rather remarkable, everyone just assumed it had been moaning myrtle that flooded the place… only those superior few knew the truth!" Sirius tapped his nose and Ginny rolled her eyes.

"Know the truth about what?"

They both jumped and turned to see Lupin who had just entered the kitchen looking as shabby as ever.

"I was just telling Ginny about how Lily flooded the third floor when James locked that Boot prat in a broom cupboard."

Lupin seemed mildly surprised before the corners of his mouth twitched.

"That was a rather interesting Sunday, wasn't it?" he commented before turning to Ginny. "Your mother has sent me on a mission to find you, Ginny, and she's rather disgruntled that you haven't been helping them with the cleaning."

"Do I _have_ to?" Ginny moaned before realising how childish she sounded.

Lupin, who she expected to address her like she was a pupil just shrugged nonchalantly. "It's almost lunch time so Molly will be coming down in a minute anyway."

Ginny was extremely disappointed. She'd been having such a good time hearing all the stories and didn't really want it to end, and Sirius had certainly cheered up a great deal reminiscing with her. It was strange to think that they'd been so awkward a mere couple of hours ago.

"Awww, Moony… why'd you have to be a spoilsport?" Sirius grinned.

"Why do _you_ always have to be in trouble?" Lupin exaggerated the rolling of his eyes, answering in an equally jokey way.

They both chortled and Ginny caught sight of what it must have been like when they were younger, her age. It was the first time she'd properly seen them laugh together and suddenly they were asking each other rather vague questions and snorting as they reminded each other of past events. She had a rather hard time following everything they were saying but they quickly turned around to give an elaborate telling of another story where James followed Lily and a (different) boy on their date and how he'd roped them both into it, charming a swarm of butterflies to flutter onto the bloke's head and various other delicately tasteful, but distracting, things.

"Hey, Moony," Sirius had a sudden stroke of inspiration. "Why don't you tell Molly that we're already making lunch, then nip back down and we can carry on telling Ginny about them?"

Lupin smiled. "I better be off anyhow… but I'll tell Molly quickly before I go."

"Aww, can't you stay for lunch? We'll be making some superb, mouth-watering sandwiches!"

"I'm sure with your cooking, Padfoot, it'll be… extraordinary!" he lowered his voice in a mock whisper to Ginny. "I'd get out if I were you!"

He winked then left them. Ginny wondered whether Lupin would be able to hold off her mother, or if in a minute she'd hear a shout and her former professor looking on very sheepishly as the angry woman stomped down to the basement. After five minutes they heard the front door open and then close. Sirius had dutifully started to sift through the cupboards for what they needed and while Ginny stood in mid poise, listening hard. A sly grin appeared on Sirius's face as he watched her sideways.

"Did… did he manage to hold off my mum?" Ginny asked bewildered.

"You didn't have any faith in your former professor?" Sirius teased, before he indicated to a pile of unbuttered rolls. Ginny sat down, picked up a knife and shrugged, still confused.

"It's a bit of a mystery, really," Sirius explained. "Remus has always had a talent for being able to smooth things over; it was fantastic for us all in school: he could cover for us. In fact, it's a little unnerving. James speculated he was using some kind of spell or enchantment, but it turns out that beneath those shabby clothes he's a bit of a charmer, especially with the witches."

Ginny blushed slightly at the idea of her old professor flirting with her mother in order to keep her out of trouble. The older wizard noticed.

"Oh, he doesn't mean it like that, just a bit clueless and polite, means they feel he's innocent, which to an extent he is," Sirius shrugged. "But he also uses that to our advantage."

"Right," Ginny nodded, concentrating on her rolls in silence for a moment. "Well, I'm rather impressed. Not that many people who can hold off the dragon. Certainly not you."

"Thanks."

"No problem."

He grinned, and the young witch caught another glimpse of the rather good-looking, playful young man. She felt sorry for him, this must be one of the first times in years that someone had just chattered away, and teased him. And it was some random teenage girl who was lamenting over her love problems. Realising that Sirius seemed happiest when talking about the past, Ginny decided to turn the conversation that way again.

"So…when did Harry's mum finally stop hating his dad?"

"The inner workings of Evans's mind was always a bit of a mystery," the corner of his mouth twitched again. "They started dating in our last year at Hogwarts. Sixth year was when there seemed to be an armistice between the two, James stopped mucking around as much, so she couldn't really yell at him for any sane reason. I think it was during that year she realised they were fighting on the same side."

"The same side?" Ginny asked before realising what he meant. "Oh."

There was a slight awkward silence as Ginny finished buttering the last roll. Sirius filled them with the various bits of food he'd found around, mostly cheese and pickle, flicking his wand. His wandwork was a little bit stiff, probably due to the fact he was still a little out of practice, or perhaps was just bad at household spells, but after a minute he managed to charm the knife to spread the pickle itself.

"So," he leaned back, wand held loose, and surveyed her. "Does that help you calculate how long it'll take before Harry goes for you?"

"Oh, shut it!"

"You're being rather rude, Miss Weasley."

"And you're not?"

He laughed loudly. "I think they'd have liked you!"

"Who?"

"James and Lily."

Ginny smiled then. She felt a little foolish at how that comment made her feel so happy. The odds of her ever having any kind of future with Harry that involved more than her just being his best friend's kid sister were low, but nevertheless, the idea that they would have approved of her gave her unaccountable happiness. Sirius didn't seem like the type of person who would say that just to make her feel good; this was genuine.

"You think so?" she bit her lip at that, realising she shouldn't have pushed the subject and just gracefully accepted the compliment.

"Yeah," he stretched, his hands combing briefly through his hair as a shrug rose. "I certainly do."

It was at that moment that Mrs Weasley burst into the kitchen. Luckily, she found the appropriately large pile of rolls and sandwiches sitting between the two skivers and nodded approvingly.

"Good, you two haven't just been dilly-dallying all morning! Although, Ginny, I expect you to be upstairs with us cleaning directly after lunch," she gave her a significant look warning her that as long as she toed the line for the rest of the day she was clear of any trouble.

"Do you want us to take this lot and some drinks upstairs, Molly?" Sirius asked her politely.

"No, I think we'll all eat in here today, have a break from the dust upstairs. Glasses you two."

She promptly left the room to gather up the troops and herd them all down into the basement. Sirius and Ginny did as she commanded and set places. It was scarcely a minute before the kitchen filled up as people grabbed at the pile of food, ravenous from working hard all morning. After the rolls and sandwiches were devoured, Ginny was ushered upstairs by her mother. She had to admit that they'd all made fairly good progress that morning, and continued to do so with two extra hands on deck, but the busyness of the work meant there was little time for talking other than warning each other of Fred and George's antics.

Later that evening, when Ginny had finished off a mug of cocoa in the kitchen and was heading upstairs, she paused on the landing just outside her room. He hadn't been downstairs with her parents, and when she'd caught glimpses of him in the mornings he always came down the stairs. After a moment's deliberation, she went up the next set of stairs curiously, and then the next, until finally when she peered at the doors she saw a half-peeled off label. There was another moment of hesitation before she tapped on the door.

"Come in," the voice answered, and she opened the door.

Sitting at his desk, half turned, Sirius was watching the door curiously, unsure who was standing on the other side.

"Ginny?" he looked surprised as she half entered the room, hesitating at the door.

The room looked sadly faded. It was dark, the pictures plastering the walls were outdated and the sort of things Ginny's own mother would highly disapprove of being on her sons' walls. It was untidy as well, still dusty, the bed unmade. Amidst all this mess, sat the man who had been so bright and lifelike downstairs, who now looked much more sober and haunted. Ginny decided it would be best not to acknowledge the rather sad surroundings.

"I, er, just wanted to say 'thank you' for earlier, mi-" she stopped herself short, not sure what she was supposed to call him, her lips naturally assuming the rounded shape to form the title for "mister" Black, but that seemed much too formal.

"For what?" he seemed confused.

"For… listening to my problem and…just talking, I suppose," Ginny answered lamely.

He was only really half listening to her, she supposed, as he seemed quite distracted by what he was doing at his desk. She wondered momentarily if it was work to do with the Order but as her eyes focused, she realised he was looking through old photographs.

"Are those…" her curiosity got the better of her and she stepped fully into the room and approached him to get a better look. "…is that you? And Harry's dad?"

"I thought I'd lost them. When I moved out I didn't expect that they'd survive…I thought she'd burn everything she could get her hands on… she damn near did," he was only half speaking to her again.

"But she left these?"

"No. I found them in Regulus's room."

Ginny didn't know who Regulus was. Sirius continued to shift through the photos, mostly of the same group of boys before he got to one that appeared to be taken inside one of the girl's dormitories in Gryffindor and he roared with laughter.

"Marlene took this, teased me about seeing the inside of the girl's dormitory, being a stupid teenager I thought it might be, anyway, all I got was an angry Lily yelling about James being an idiot."

Ginny peered to see a pretty girl pacing the dormitory who was obviously in a bit of a rage and sounding off. She smiled, and Sirius grinned at her approval of the photo.

"James was persistent. He never really gave up those years. It's a pretty good philosophy to take on," Sirius looked sideways at her.

Ginny wasn't dense, she got the message.

"Thanks, er…"

"Sirius," he answered. "You can call me 'Sirius', Ginny. Remus might be Professor Lupin, but I'm never going to grow old like that."

He winked at her, and she laughed. "Thanks, Sirius."

"No, really, thank you," he smiled sadly at her.

"I better head off to bed."

"Of course."

Ginny moved across the room again to the door.

"Goodnight."

"Goodnight."

Harry touched his scar absentmindedly, distracted. It hurt, but he needed to concentrate on the situation which lay before him. They were all breathing heavily, having moved quickly through the forest. He muttered, wondering how they were going to get to the Ministry of Magic and, more importantly, to the man they needed to save.

"Well, we'll have to fly, won't we?" Luna's tone was almost bright as she stated what she must have thought to be the obvious solution.

Harry rounded on her. He was angry, and frustrated. Panic had set in and Luna's tone had seemingly touched a nerve "Okay, first of all, ' _we_ ' aren't doing anything if you're including yourself in that, and second of all, Ron's the only one with a broomstick that isn't being guarded by a security troll, so – "

At this point Ginny burst forward with a protest. She, after all, was a good flier, and her broom was perfectly accessible.

"You're not coming."

It was Ginny's turn to round on her brother. Frustration boiled up inside her against being told she was too young, unable to do anything, babied as the little sister. But what she really couldn't excuse was the fact that they disregarded entirely how she felt about what needed done, and who needed saving.

"Excuse me!" she spoke fiercely. "But I care what happens to Sirius as much as you do!"

* * *

 **A/N:** Sometimes, we all really just need a bit of fluff (of the non-romantic kind)!*

This short story was a long one coming, because I've always sort of loved the idea of exploring the relationship between Ginny and Sirius. In fact, one of my favourite short FFs is LupinFan227's "First Kiss". And whenever I read OOTP the part where Ginny exclaims that she cares as much about Sirius as Ron and the rest of them do, really makes me think that a good friendship did exist between them, so that's why I wanted to include the last little part as well, to tie it into the story.

Sorry this is still a wee bit rough, not that well edited because I wrote half of it at 1am and knew that if I didn't upload it soon I'd forget all about it, so excuse if there are typos etc. (and excuse all the shrugging that is going on, lazy writing, I know)

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed it and let me know what you think about Sirius and Ginny's friendship (or lack of one, if you are so inclined) in the reviews!

ScottishTimeLady x

*I realise I may have been away from FF too long when people are defining fluff now as just romantically related rather than just irrelevant, no plot fillers to make us feel happy inside (which are, in all fairness, often involve romantic gushyness)


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